the Future of Work

A world where everything is content

by Danny Kolke
published on: 02/01/2007

In my previous post I talked about the different worlds between a customer event and an industry event such as the AlwaysOn On Media event. Well, I just finished up the conference in NYC.  At the AlwaysOn On Media event in New York I had the opportunity to participate in a panel on Mash-Ups and I made some statements I firmly believe. After speaking from stage, the conversation has continued with myself and my team and many that came up to talk with me after the session was over.  On my panel was Fred Destin, partner, Atlas Venture, Itzak Cohen, CEO, ClipSync, Seth Sternberg, CEO, Meebo, Rex Wong, CEO, Dave.TV and myself.

I made the statement that at Etelos we look at everything as content, and the power of the "mash-up movement" is that users expect to get content easily and everywhere. They have an expectation that it is easy to integrate and share content.  Well, what if everything is content?

Is Everything Content?

If you are using a CRM, is your call list content? Is your task list content? Your calendar? Your project you are managing or involved in? Notes you have to take, blog posts, blog editor? Wiki? Where does it end?

I have been saying for years that all applications are based on content. When you are looking at a page - it's just content.  A form, a list, (hence why we call our engines in EASE the form engine and list engine) its just content. Granted this may be a Zen kind of statement. But I believe when you break down what you need your web application into this fundamental thought, what you enable yourself to do is extremely liberating.  All that separates you from the application you have and the application that you want and need is understanding how to use the tools.

Bloggosophical?

Note: I have been working on a new formal language in an attempt to minimize the amount of acronyms in my life and decided that the mash-up principal would be a good standard for improving the efficiency of conversational English.  Bloggosophical is the obvious mash-up of philosophy and blogging.

I am definitely a philosopher at heart.  My dad is a theologian and I guess the acorn didn't fall too far from the mighty oak (Check out kolke.com, my dad's blog sometime). I approach things in thought first, and I believe that if you approach what you want to do with an understanding that it's just content... if you have the right tool, you can build any web-app. And you can build it faster, cheaper, and better than you thought.

There is nothing more gratifying to the human spirit than the fundamental principal of thinking a thing, then doing it.

I don't know about you, but this is true for me.  When I can understand how to do something new, I feel great.  When I can design something and build it in minutes - it's awesome.  When I close my eyes and make music, or when I use my fingers to form the words I am feeling... It's liberating. It's uplifting.  Well, what if you can do that with the applications that you need to make your life and your business better?

 

Etelos enables you to do what you want

Etelos enables you to understand how to build the app that you want faster and better than ever before.  And when you understand that all web-pages are content, all forms, all lists are just building blocks... your world will change.  Here is a sneak peak at what I have been playing with lately.

Below is a screenshot of my world in Netvibes.  I haven't published this yet to the Netvibes community, but probably will shortly.  This is my CRM. Tasks, Email, Calls, Sales Reports, Support Tickets, Knowledge base... blah blah blah.  It's all there.

I feel great about this application.  It gives me what I want, it helps me.  It's efficient and it's fun to use. And if I don't like something, I can change it.

The future is here.  What is this going to do to the enterprise marketplace?  What will happen when any business can have the app that they want for a fraction of the cost, and the freedom to customize for pennies instead of dollars?  There is going to be another business revolution. And here it comes.

 

 

 It took my less than 2 hours to build my CRM on Etelos/EASE and integrate with Netvibes.  Most of that time was using an XHTML validator to make sure my code was clean enough.  The rest was easy.

So where to from here?

Who knows where this will all end up. But I believe that we at Etelos will continue to help our users experience the web and enable them to build applications that do what they want with new efficiency.  At the end of the day, it's just an app.  When you understand how it works, you will go "WOW". Then you can build anything you want.  

Yeah, it can be a developer.  But the amazing thing about Etelos is that you can understand the code that makes it all work.  It's written in English. It's content; it's either a form, or a list... 99.9% of the time. 

But isn't any web-page the same thing?